LEARNING TO SURF
Here are some helpful hints to help make the task of learning to surf a little easier.
Buy the right board. A board for a beginner should be big enough to float the person easily without being overly corky (if it is too thick it will tend to bob and buck you off and will be hard to drag through the surf). The board should be about an arms length above your head when standing next to it. The best size we have found is around the 6'8" - 7'2" mark for average adults (fatboy model).
If you are a heavier build you may want to go longer and look more toward a malibu shape board for more stability. The same goes if you are a late comer to the sport and have a lot of fitness to catch up on, an 8' malibu or even a 9' longboard may be your best bet to get started. Some people already know what kind of surfing they want to explore so they may decide to go with a longboard because that is what they aspire to do... be a longboarder.
Get a buddy. Now you have begged borrowed or stolen a suitable board you need to convince a buddy that they should do this learn to surf thing with you. It is so much easier with a friend to push you along and empathise with you along the way. Surfing is a tough sport/art to learn but so worth the effort and the rewards sTart from day one. It is best not to surf alone so having someone with you may stop that beginner tendancy to try and surf "where the people are". Where the people are is not always the best spot for a learner to try and surf.
A learner needs a smallish even breaking wave with a long steady white wash and perhaps a gentle reform, not necessarily the peak where the good surfers are congregating. So, having your mate along will teach you to go to the spot that suits your level of surfing. You need to find out where the best spots for learning are in your locality and keep an eye on conditions. Even the best beach for learning is sometimes out of bounds for beginners. Sometimes it willl be too big or rippy, or choppy or infested with stingers. All these things you can learn by checking out what weather conditions are best for the beach you are comfortable with. Now this is not always the classic offshore of the surf movies.
Beginners need the wave to break gently so an offshore is not ideal. A breath of offshore is fine because the wave won't pitch out and tube too much. You will know if the wind is too strong offshore when you have nosdived on every single wave and taken half the beach home with you up your nose and in your swimmers. Light winds will suit your needs best for now. Onshores look less inviting but they make the waves crumble and will facilitate easier takeoffs on green waves.
But we are probably ahead of ourselves here. Initial wave riding will be done on small white water waves, caught by pushing off from standing on the sand bank. This will most likely allow you to get to your feet from time to time and give you the sense that you are accomplishing something. Now this is all well and good, but for the purist, we would have you practising your paddling on the way out, then make you sit up and turn your board around using circular movements of the feet under the board and pulling on the rail with the arm in the direction you want to turn, then you would lie down and paddle to catch that wave with all those skills being practised. This is really what you should be doing now because then it will be easier to learn the technique of standing up on a breaking wave as you will have built up a base of basic skills and won't need to think about them anymore.
If you continue to walk out on the sandbank and catch tiny white water waves you will still have a big task ahead when you want to venture OUT THE BACK. Learning about rips is one of the first thing you need to know about when starting to surf. Safety is on reason to be able to spot a rip, but not for the same reason as you might think.
A rip is a surfers best friend. When used correctly it will ease you out the back on a swift current of water and leave you with only green water to paddle across to the take off spot of your choice. Because waves don't break as readily in rips (the water is deeper here) this is what gives the waves their shape and keeps you out of the way of surfers riding their waves to the beach. Sandbanks that produce good waves have a shallow part and taper off where the wave breaks. No shape on the bank means no shape on the wave so rips often form the bank which makes for fun surf for surfers.
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If you have used the advice not to surf alone you will have a friend who can call for help. A beginner should avoid any really powerful conditions and this includes a raging rip current. Sometimes even on small days the angle of the swell can push loads of water to the corner of a beach and make the current extra strong, be mindful of this but generally speaking, rips are good. Surfers love rips.